Monday, April 14, 2014

From ew, Captain America: The Winter Soldier warded off newcomers this weekend and remains king of the hill with $41.4 million in its second weekend of release. The Marvel actioner dropped just 56 percent from its opening weekend and the film’s domestic total now stands at $159 million — close to 90 percent of the lifetime gross of the original, thank you very much — with global receipts already pushing $476.7 million.

Despite a Friday night win, that meant Rio 2 had to settle for second place with $39 million ($125.2 million overseas). The 3-D animated sequel tells the story of Blu, Jewel and their kids adjusting to life in the Amazon. Fox, who released the tropical Starburst-colored film in 3,948 locations, enjoyed a similar opening when Rio opened to $39.2 million back in 2011. Critics by and large gave the sequel a splat (51 percent on Rotten Tomatoes) but CinemaScore audiences granted the kid-pleaser a solid A. The film attracted a beautifully diverse audience — 25 percent Hispanic, 19 percent African-American, and 14 percent Asian.

Oculus came up with the bronze this weekend, with Relativity’s micro-budget ($5 million) sibling horror show scaring up $12 million at 2,650 theaters. Starring Doctor Who‘s Karen Gillian, the movie earned only a “C” CinemaScore rating, though its mediocre mark is consistent with recent genre peers like The Purge and Cabin in the Woods.

It feels a bit like a fumble for fellow newcomer Draft Day, led by sports flick demi-God Kevin Coster. Lionsgate’s Summit Entertainment largely targeted its football drama at sports fans via their unique affiliation with the NFL, but during her own promotional rounds, Jennifer Garner tried to pitch the movie to Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show as more of “romantic comedy.” She’s always a winning spokesperson — and who plays a beleaguered sports man as persuasively as Kevin Coster? — but the film underperformed with $9.8 million at 2,781 locations. CinemaScore audiences granted the Ivan Reitman-helmed film a solid B+ rating, but critics were less committal(63 percent on Rotten Tomatoes).

Rounding out the top 5 is Divergent, which narrowly bested Noah by a cool half million. The Shailene Woodley-led tale of young love in a fractured futuristic society raked in $50.3 million overseas, with a global box office now sitting pretty at $175.2 million.

In limited release, the new vampire romance Only Lovers Left Alive — directed by Jim Jarmusch and starring the impossibly cool Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston — opened with an estimated $97,000 in 4 locations. And hats off to The Grand Budapest Hotel, the Wes Anderson movie that continues to hang on in the top 10 in its sixth weekend of release. Now playing in 1,467 theaters, the movie grossed over $4 million.

And finally, a note about the ceaseless soundtrack to parents’ lives, the theme of every girl’s birthday party our young children attend. The sister-power Disney phenomenonFrozen has now earned $1.12 billion across the globe. The little people will never let it go.